


Kaidan

by RinChanSanMatsuoka



Series: Tumblr Halloween Requests [2]
Category: Free!
Genre: Bad Ending, Blood, Blood Loss, Body Horror, Gen, Ghosts, Gore, Horror, POV character death, Trauma, Violence, clairvoyant haruka, no happy ending, very briefly mentioned makoharu
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 19:34:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5387711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RinChanSanMatsuoka/pseuds/RinChanSanMatsuoka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>The warm blood had reached Kisumi’s knees and he wanted to scream, to beg any god that would listen to undo this, to save Sousuke.  No matter how much he bit his lip, he still wasn’t waking up in the tent from some horrible nightmare.  This was really happening.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>Sousuke was really dying.</i>
</p><p>A camping trip goes horribly wrong for the Sano Trio.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kaidan

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hubbyhaise](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hubbyhaise/gifts).



> This took forever to write. I started this in October and only finished it now. It was a request for my friend and I decided to try writing horror again.
> 
> In advance: I'm so sorry.

“Wait, so he watched his whole family die?”  Rin’s voice was tinged with annoyance; he had always preferred happy endings over sad ones.

“Yep!  And then he became a vengeful ghost!  It happened here in the mountains!”  Kisumi’s voice was light, as though he hadn’t just told a ghost story involving the brutal murders of an entire family.

A derisive snort from across the small campfire drew his attention and he shot a pout at Sousuke.  “It’s true!”

All that did was earn him another snort from his friend.  “It is _not_ true.  Now shut up before you scare Rin even more.”

“I’m not scared!  It’s just a stupid story!”  Rin kicked Sousuke’s shin, which only caused his friend to laugh.

Sousuke reached over to muss up Rin’s hair, snickering as the redhead grumbled.  He dodged another kick, then got up and moved to the other side of the fire to sit beside Kisumi.  “He’s scared,” he said, voice lowered conspiratorially.

Kisumi nodded sagely, giving Rin a sweet smile before cupping his hand around Sousuke’s ear to whisper back.  “He’ll probably put his sleeping bag in the middle.”

Sousuke actually laughed at that, making Kisumi grin and Rin sulk.

After a few moments, when neither Kisumi nor Sousuke offered up what they had been whispering about, Rin huffed and stood up.  He made his way over to their pile of supplies and grabbed his sleeping bag.  Making his way into the tent, he set it up in the middle, frowning a bit when he heard laughter behind him.

“What’s so funny?”  He asked, glaring at his two best friends.  They just continued to laugh, which only irritated him further.

“Told you he’d pick the middle,” Kisumi snickered, nudging Sousuke in the side with his elbow.

“Poor RinRin’s scared.  You should be nicer to him,” Sousuke said, taking on a stern tone of voice before he started to laugh.

“Don’t call me that!”  Rin bristled a bit and grabbed the closest thing – a packet of instant ramen – and hurled it at the other two.   It hit Sousuke’s knee before falling to the ground. 

There was a moment of silence before Sousuke and Kisumi burst into laughter again.

Kisumi watched as Rin turned red before stomping into the tent and closing it behind him, grumbling about going to sleep and how he had the worst friends.  Still chuckling a little bit, Kisumi turned to Sousuke.  “No complaining if he ends up clinging to either of us in his sleep, okay?”

“Fine, fine.  It’s mostly your fault, though, for telling that story,” Sousuke said as he stood up to put out the campfire.

Pouting a bit, Kisumi stood up as well, making his way over to the tent.  “It wasn’t _that_ bad…”

* * *

It had taken ten minutes of pleading with Rin to let them into the tent and he had only conceded when Sousuke and Kisumi promised to make him some of his favorite food.  They set up their sleeping bags on the edges of the tent, with Kisumi promising to let Rin cling to him in his sleep if he got scared.  Rin had scoffed and said it would never happen, but Kisumi had woken up to find Rin clinging to his shirt in his sleep.

Breakfast had gone fine.  Sousuke had made extra bacon for Rin and that had appeased him a bit.  Then he had demanded they go hiking, because he couldn’t miss even one day without some form of training.

Kisumi groaned a bit, trailing behind Rin and Sousuke as the other two led the way along the forest trail.  Those two had always had an unlimited amount of energy and it hadn’t seemed to diminish with age.  He was starting to get hungry and was about to suggest stopping to eat their protein bars when Rin stopped walking.

It had been so sudden that Sousuke had actually walked into the shorter man, sending Rin stumbling a bit.

“Oi, Rin, what are you doing?”  Sousuke grumbled, grabbing Rin’s arm so he wouldn’t fall over.  When he got no response, his frown deepened and he turned to see what Rin was looking at.

Kisumi turned his head as well.  A chill ran down his spine when his eyes landed on a small, abandoned looking cabin several meters off in the trees.

The sudden fear was inexplicable; there had to be plenty of old cabins out here, right?  Then again, Iwatobi was small and it would be strange if the forestry service allowed several abandoned cabins to keep sitting around unused.  He turned his attention back to Rin, who was still staring at the cabin.

“Rin, are you okay?”  Kisumi’s question went ignored and he frowned, glancing over at Sousuke.  He saw a matching expression of worry on his friend’s face and he hurried over to Rin.

Sousuke stepped in front of Rin, blocking the cabin from view.  “Rin.  Snap out of it.”

With the building out of sight, Rin seemed to come back to reality.  There was a small frown on his face as he took a step back.  “It’s just a stupid story, right?”

Kisumi and Sousuke exchanged another worried glance before Kisumi put on a bright smile for Rin.  “Of course it was just a story, Rin!  Besides, it happened in like, what, the 1960s?  There wouldn’t be anything here anymore.  C’mon, you know ghosts don’t _really_ exist.”

A pout formed on Rin’s lips as he turned to look at Kisumi.  “Then why did you keep insisting it was true?”

“I thought it would make it scarier…  I’m sorry Rin-chan,” Kisumi said, putting an arm around Rin’s shoulders.  “That cabin’s probably just overdue for demolition.  There’s nothing scary about it.”

“Oi, don’t call me Rin-chan!”  Rin huffed as he pushed Kisumi’s arm away.  “I can’t believe you were trying to scare me.”

Sighing as his arm was shoved away, Kisumi glanced at Sousuke before looking at the cabin.  “I’m sorry, Rin.  Do you want me to prove that it was nothing more than a scary story?”

Rin was still sulking, though he did seem interested in what Kisumi had just said.  “I guess…”

“Great.  Now come on.  Sousuke, you come too.”  Grabbing Rin’s arm, Kisumi pulled him toward the cabin.  “There’s nothing in here, Rin.  It’s just an old cabin that’s been neglected.  That’s all.  The story probably just got passed around by some hikers who thought it looked creepy.”

Kisumi stopped in front of the cabin door, giving Rin an encouraging smile.  “I promise, RinRin, everything’s okay.”

“Stop calling me RinRin and prove it already!”  Rin frowned as he aimed a gentle kick at Kisumi’s shin.

A soft chuckle came from beside them and they both turned to look at Sousuke.  He simply shook his head and went to open the door.  It stuck for a moment but popped open easily when Sousuke pushed it with his good shoulder.  “See, Rin?  It’s not that old.  Teenagers probably come up here to scare each other.  Like a certain strawberry blond we know,” he said, sending Kisumi a smirk.

“Not you too, Sou-chan!  I said I was sorry!”  Kisumi tried to give him his best pout but Sousuke simply snorted.

“Call me Sou-chan again and you’re going in there alone,” Sousuke said, though he was already walking through the door.  Once inside, he stopped and turned to look at the other two, waiting for them to join him.

Rolling his eyes, Kisumi followed Sousuke into the small house.  “But it’s cute.”  He simply smiled when Sousuke only gave him a frown in response before turning to look at Rin.  The redhead was still outside, staring at them with wide eyes.  “Come on, Rin.  It’s fine.  I promise.”  He smiled as Rin’s stubborn resolve crumbled and the redhead finally followed them into the house.

* * *

The natural humidity from the ocean had found its way into the cabin and seemed to have amplified over the years of being inside the sealed structure.  The air felt heavy and oppressive, weighing down on the trio like a damp rag.

Every breath Kisumi took felt like inhaling water and the distinct smell of mold caused him to cough.  He glanced over at the other two, seeing that Rin and Sousuke had already pulled their shirts up to cover their mouths.

“It fuckin’ stinks in here,” Rin muttered, wandering into what looked like the remains of a living room.  The couch had rotted through and Rin made a disgusted noise when a cockroach skittered out from under it.

Kisumi directed his focus away from Rin to what he could see of the rest of the house.  There were black, wet looking patches on the walls and upon further inspection, he found himself drawing back quickly, gagging slightly.  No wonder the smell of mold was so strong; the entire house was covered in the black substance and it made Kisumi’s skin crawl.

He moved away from the wall to survey the rest of the house.  Apart from the entryway and the living room, all Kisumi could see were a small kitchenette, covered in mold and several cockroaches like the living room, and a dark hallway that seemed to have several rooms branching out from it.

“Kisumi, that’s not funny!” 

Rin’s shout drew both Kisumi and Sousuke’s attention and they stared at their friend, who was standing on the opposite side of the living room from them.  Kisumi had been about to ask Rin what exactly he had done but his words caught in his throat when Rin’s expression went from annoyance to fear when he looked at his friends.

“Rin?  What’s wrong?”  Sousuke kept his voice low, trying to get Rin to calm down.  Seeing that the redhead wasn’t calming down, he made his way over to Rin and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Something touched me, Sousuke,” Rin said, his voice quiet and shaky, all traces of his usual bravado gone.  “How’d you get across the room so fast, Kisumi?”

“Why do you think it was me?  I wouldn’t be that mean, Rin-chan!”  A frown made its way onto Kisumi’s face as he looked at Rin.  All he got in response was a weak shrug.  “It was probably just a cobweb or something.  Or a bug fell on you.”

“It wasn’t a stupid bug!  Something _grabbed_ me!  I know what a hand feels like!”  Rin’s voice rose, cracking slightly as he finished speaking.  He dropped his shirt from his mouth and opted for hugging himself instead.  “Can we just leave?”

Kisumi and Sousuke exchanged a glance, their faces mirroring each other’s worry.

Sousuke spoke first, using the hand on Rin’s shoulder to steer him toward the door.  “Okay Rin.  We’ll leave and just enjoy the rest of our camping trip.  We didn’t mean to scare you.”

Kisumi moved over to the front door when Sousuke spoke and tried to open it.  He didn’t remember any of them closing it, but it could have been a draft.  Pulling at the door, he frowned, wondering if the humidity inside the cabin had warped the wood this badly.  He tugged harder at the door, wondering why it was so much harder to get out than in.

“Kisumi, open the damn door!”  Rin’s voice still held that fearful edge to it, though it sounded like he was trying to cover it up with anger.

“It’s stuck.  It’s just warped wood, Rin-chan,” Kisumi said, sighing a bit.  “Hey, Sou-chan, do you think you can –“

His question was cut off as Sousuke shoved him away from the door, sending him crashing to the floor.  He was about to ask just what the hell that was for when he heard Rin scream Sousuke’s name.

Throughout all the years Kisumi had known Rin, he had never heard him sound like that.  The terror in that scream chilled Kisumi down to his bones and a part of him wanted to run, to hide from whatever pain had made Rin sound so broken.

Another part, the one that wanted to protect his friends and stick by them, won out and Kisumi sat up, turning to stare at Sousuke.

A pale arm was sticking out of the front door, impaling Sousuke through his stomach.  The hand was coming out of his back, fingers twitching slowly as blood and chunks of something Kisumi didn’t want to think about fell to the floor.  Sousuke was grabbing onto the arm, eyes wide and terrified as he tried to get it out of his abdomen.

Just as suddenly as the arm had appeared, it vanished and Sousuke crumpled, falling to the floor with a dull thud.

Rin screamed again, sinking to his knees beside his best friend.  His hands were trembling as he moved Sousuke onto his back carefully.  The gaping hole in Sousuke’s abdominal cavity pumped blood slowly, staining the floor and the knees of Rin’s jeans a dark red.

Forcing himself out of his stupor, Kisumi moved over to his friends, watching as Rin pressed shaking hands against Sousuke’s stomach in a vain attempt to stop the blood loss.  All he accomplished was getting his skin wet with blood.

Sousuke seemed to have noticed this and Kisumi watched as his friend mustered up some strength to grab Rin’s hands, stilling his trembling hands.  “Go,” he whispered, voice raspy.

“I’m not leaving you!”  Rin’s voice was bordering on hysterical as he gripped Sousuke’s hand tightly.  “Y-You’ll be okay.  He’ll be okay, right Kisumi?”

The look of sorrow in those tear-filled ruby eyes made Kisumi look away.  He didn’t want to lie to Rin but Sousuke was bleeding out fast.  The warm blood had reached Kisumi’s knees and he wanted to scream, to beg any god that would listen to undo this, to save Sousuke.  No matter how much he bit his lip, he still wasn’t waking up in the tent from some horrible nightmare.  This was really happening.

Sousuke was really _dying_.

A weak grip on his hand had him looking back at Sousuke, who had reached over to get his attention.  Choking back the panic threatening to turn him into a screaming mess, Kisumi scooted closer as he held Sousuke’s hand gently.

“Get… Rin out.  Please,” Sousuke whispered, grimacing in pain.  The few words brought on a violent cough that caused his whole body to tremble.  The blood flow from his stomach quickened briefly, seeping into everything it touched.  His lips were stained with specks of blood and he licked them weakly as he found Kisumi’s gaze again.

Leaving Sousuke was the last thing Kisumi wanted to do but he also didn’t want to deny his friend’s last request.  Even in death Sousuke was fiercely protective over Rin.

Giving Sousuke’s hand a gentle squeeze, Kisumi nodded.  “I won’t leave you here,” he said softly, knowing that once he was sure Rin was safe, he’d make sure Sousuke was brought home and not left to rot in this cabin.

After Sousuke nodded a bit in response to what he’d said, Kisumi stood and moved over to Rin, pulling him away from Sousuke.

Instantly, Rin panicked, shoving against Kisumi in an attempt to stay by Sousuke.  “Let me go!  I want to stay with him!”  He succeeded briefly, only to turn back to watch as Sousuke give him a pained smile as he took his final breath.

All of the fight seemed to drain out of Rin at that.  He slumped to the floor, staring at the body of his best friend.  The tears started falling, silent, as Rin simply sat there and stared at Sousuke.

It took some effort and quite a bit of physical exertion on Kisumi’s part but he finally managed to pull Rin away from Sousuke and into the living room.  They had to find another exit, since he didn’t want to risk something like that happening again should they try the front door once more.

As he surveyed their surroundings, his own panic bubbling just under the surface and threatening to burst out, he felt Rin sag to the floor beside him again.  Rin’s crying picked up, no longer silent as he wept.  The sound of wretched sobbing mixed with upset, anguished, incomprehensible shouting filled the cabin and Kisumi felt his heart crack.  If it hadn’t been for the final promise he’d made to Sousuke, Kisumi feared that he would be in a similar state of anguish.  After all, Sousuke had always been the most level-headed one of the bunch.

Kneeling beside his friend, Kisumi pulled Rin into a tight hug, attempting to calm the other young man down.  He felt his shoulder grow wet with tears as Rin continued to sob with no end to his pained crying in sight.  So, Kisumi simply held him, using the time to try to find an exit.

He supposed they could try breaking through a window and getting out that way.  Hadn’t there been a large window near the front door?

Kisumi glanced over at the door, only to find a blank wall, covered in slimy, black mold like the rest of the house.  His gaze shifted to the floor, finding that Sousuke had vanished as well, though the pool of blood remained, as if mocking Kisumi with the memory of his friend.

His grip on Rin must have tightened unconsciously, because he felt the redhead wince and shove him away slightly.

“Sorry, Rin…  Let’s look for another exit, okay?  We’ll find a window or something,” Kisumi said, keeping his voice soft in an attempt to keep Rin calm.

“There was a window by the door.”  Rin’s voice was hoarse when he spoke, a cough working its way out from deep in his chest.  The appearance of the wall seemed to have worsened the air quality, as Kisumi also felt the tickle of a cough that refused to leave no matter how many times he cleared his throat.

After Rin’s coughing fit passed, he tried to glance at the door but Kisumi quickly turned his head away.

“Don’t,” he warned, not needing Rin panic again when they really needed to focus on getting out of this building.

He should have known his warning would go unheeded.  Rin was stubborn and if he wanted something, he would get it.  Pulling his head out of Kisumi’s hands, Rin looked at the door, only to come face to face with the moldy wall.

“Where… Where’s the door?  Kisumi, where’s the fucking door?!”  Rin’s voice was nearing hysterics again and Kisumi couldn’t let that happen.  They _had_ to get out of here.

“I don’t know!  Rin, calm down, please, we’ll find a window or something, okay?”  Grabbing Rin’s arm to keep him in place, Kisumi looked around, growing more desperate.  He tried pulling Rin off in the direction opposite the wall when Rin stiffened in his grip.

“Where’s Sousuke?”

The question was quiet, almost a whisper but the hope in Rin’s voice made Kisumi’s chest clench.  They had both watched him die.  Nothing good would come from this false hope.

“I don’t know, Rin.  Please, come on.”  The words sounded cold to Kisumi’s ears but he couldn’t care right now.  Getting out them both out alive was his priority and even though it hurt, he knew he would mourn Sousuke later.

Rin ripped his arm out of Kisumi’s hand, making a beeline for the pool of blood.  “If… If he’s gone, that means he’s alive!”

“It doesn’t!  That…  That _thing_ must have hidden him just like it hid the door!”  Hurrying after Rin, Kisumi grabbed onto his arm, using his larger frame to forcibly move Rin.  He pulled him against his chest, holding Rin in a tight hug to keep him from running off.  “We watched him die, Rin-chan.  He wanted us to live.  Are you really going to ignore his final wish like that?”

While Kisumi felt bad guilt tripping Rin like this, the question finally seemed to snap some sense back into him.  He stopped pushing against Kisumi and simply slumped against him.  “I want to go home,” he said, voice soft and defeated.

A feeling of protectiveness, normally reserved just for Hayato, surged inside Kisumi and he relaxed his hold on Rin into a gentle hug.  “I know.  We’ll get out of here and go home.  I promise you, Rin.  I will get you out of here.”

* * *

Finding a window big enough to escape through proved to be difficult.  They wandered around the cabin, clinging to each other’s hands.  Kisumi told Rin it was to keep from getting separated, and while that was partly true, the feeling of something warm and alive kept him grounded.  Especially when he realized they were wandering aimlessly, as if they were stuck in an endless loop.

Kisumi turned around, frowning when he could see the living room from where they were standing.  They had been walking for at least an hour, according to his cellphone clock, the time dragging by slowly and painfully, yet the living room seemed only a short distance behind them.  In front of them, the inky black hallway continued, which not even the flashlights on both their phones could penetrate.

As he looked back into that darkness, debating whether they should keep pressing forward or turn back, something moved in the depths of the hallway.  It had been a flicker, making Kisumi wonder if it had been a trick of light or something else mundane.  He was about to step further into the hallway when the darkness _squirmed_ , accompanied by a squelching sound, like wet skin writhing and sliding against itself.

The sound caught Rin’s attention and Kisumi could feel his friend’s grip on his hand tighten.  “Kisumi, not that way, please,” he pleaded, voice quiet, as though he was afraid that whatever lurked in the dark would lash out if it heard him.

“Okay, we… we’ll try the other direction.”  Tugging on Rin’s hand, Kisumi pulled him back the way they had come, heading back toward the living room.  When he turned his back on the hallway, the squelching grew in volume, as though the sound were coming from right behind him.

Breaking into a run, Kisumi tried to focus on the living room, holding onto a hope that things would be okay once they reached the open space.  Nothing that happened to them while he had been consoling Rin earlier, so maybe, just maybe, they would be safe there.

His breath wheezed in and out of his lungs as his feet pounded against the mold-slick floor and beside him, he could hear Rin struggling to breathe as well.  If they didn’t get out of here soon, he would have to start worrying about the health issues that might come about from breathing in all this crap.

Bony, icy fingers wrapped around his ankle, dragging Kisumi down to the floor.  His momentum prevented him from breaking his fall and his chin smacked against the moldy wood, blood pooling in his mouth as he bit his tongue.  During his fall, he’d lost hold of Rin and, ignoring the danger to his own life, he looked up to find Rin in the living room.  The redhead was staring into the hallway, frozen with fear.

The hand around his ankle tightened its grip and instinctively, Kisumi kicked out at it, feeling his foot connect with an arm.  Something wet hit the floor with a loud _plop_ and Kisumi turned around slowly, his chest tightening with fear.

On the floor by his foot lay a pile of _skin_ , sloughed off the arm he had kicked.  The arm in question was glistening, slick with blood on the bare muscles.  It reached for him, along with its twin, whose own gray, decaying flesh seemed to be clinging to it by mere threads. 

He scrambled backwards, away from those grasping hands.  The skinless one managed to grab his pant leg and before he could react, a vase was hurled into the darkness and shattered against something.  Kisumi glanced behind him to see Rin staring at the hallway, looking like he had just pitched a baseball. The distraction was enough for Kisumi to break free and he ran over to Rin, grabbing him and pulling him away from the hallway. 

The arms vanished back into the darkness, only to be followed by several ear-piercing shrieks, all in unison.  The walls of the cabin shook and the windows shattered, shards of glass falling to the floor in a sharp, tinkling rain.

As the shrieks continued, the arms burst out of the hallway, stretching and grasping at Kisumi and Rin.  The air inside the cabin grew heavy and suffocating and as the shrieks grew louder, a multitude of arms burst out of the darkness.  The squelching sound returned and Kisumi realized, with growing nausea, that the noise came from the arms.  The slippery dead skin slid and writhed against the tangle of rotting flesh reaching out of the hallway, with chunks falling to the floor occasionally, filling the cabin with the scent of rotten flesh.

The stench hit him like a brick wall, forcing him to double over and heave onto the carpet.  He could hear Rin beside him, throwing up onto the rotting floor as well.  After his stomach stopped forcing up its contents, Kisumi straightened up, pulling his shirt over his nose as he did so.  It did little to block out the smell but it was better than before.

Moving to Rin’s side, he rubbed his friend’s back gently, keeping an eye on the mass of arms.  The shrieks had died off, leaving only the disgusting sound of rotting flesh rubbing against itself and falling to the floor with a wet smack.  The arms themselves seemed unable to pass into the living room, though the pulsating blackness they came from seemed alive with a force ready to swoop in and kill them both.

After Rin seemed to have caught his breath, Kisumi turned away from the arms, eyes widening when he noticed that the front door was back.  Sousuke’s body was still missing but he made himself to ignore that for now.  If the door still refused to open, well, he would think of what to do then.  For now, he pulled Rin onto his feet and hurried over to the door.

A low noise that sounded like the growl of an angry dog came from behind them and Kisumi forced himself not to turn around in curiosity. Instead, he pushed Rin ahead of him, wanting to get his friend out of the cabin first.

Rin stumbled a bit but caught himself, grabbing the doorknob and twisting.  The door resisted at first but after one particularly hard tug, it opened, revealing the dark forest outside the cabin.  Night had fallen, making Kisumi wonder just how long they had actually been inside the structure.  It had only felt like a couple hours and yet outside, a whole day had passed.  But it didn’t matter; what mattered was leaving this place for good.

“Rin, we need to go,” Kisumi whispered, hoping that if they stayed quiet, whatever had taken Sousuke wouldn’t notice them.

“Right…  I just wanna go home, Kisumi,” Rin said, his voice just as low.  “And we’ll have someone come find Sousuke, right?”  He glanced around, as though hoping their friend’s body would rematerialize if he was mentioned.

“Of course.  We’re not going to leave him here.  I promise.”  He didn’t want to linger in here, but if it meant comforting Rin, he could spare a few moments.

“Good,” Rin said, giving Kisumi a small nod.  With that, he turned back to the door and took a step over the threshold.

The shrieks from the hallway returned at an ear-splitting volume as soon as Rin’s foot was outside.  A chill worked its way down his spine and he shuddered, turning back to glance at the hallway.  The arms were stretching toward them, fingers opening and closing as though they were attempting to grab them.

As the shrieking continued, Kisumi watched as shards of glass from the broken windows shook against the ground before rising into the air.  They were all pointed at the front door and directly at Rin, who had turned around at the shrieks and was now frozen in fear.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion for Kisumi as he sprung forward while the shards flew towards Rin.  He tackled Rin, sending them both to the ground outside the door.  As he fell, there was a sharp tug across the skin of his neck and arms, followed by a severe stinging pain.  He lay on top of Rin for a moment, hoping that the pain would subside.  After a moment of growing lightheadedness and nausea, the pain dulled enough for him to prop himself up slightly.

Kisumi looked down at Rin to see if his friend was unhurt, only see the horror-stricken face of his best friend covered in blood.  Rin was reaching up, pressing his hands against Kisumi’s throat and saying _something_ , though everything sounded muffled.  It wasn’t until he saw the blood dripping down Rin’s hands that he realized _he_ was the one bleeding.

His last conscious thought was regret at failing to get Rin home safely.

* * *

Disoriented after being slammed to the ground, Rin tried to process what was happening.  There had been screaming and glass and now he was outside with Kisumi on top of him as something warm and wet rained down on him.  It wasn’t until Kisumi moved that he realized he was being showered in his friend’s blood.

There were shards of glass lying on the ground around them, edges bloody from where they had sliced through whatever part of Kisumi’s skin they could find.  It seemed as though every part of his friend was bleeding, though the worst was the spray of blood coming from his neck.

Horrified, he reached up, pressing his hands against Kisumi’s throat in a desperate attempt to stop the spray of blood coming out of his throat.  “Kisumi, stay with me, please,” he begged, watching as blood seeped past his fingers and ran down his arms.  Beneath his hands, he could barely feel Kisumi’s pulse quicken, causing blood to pump out of his cuts even faster. 

Rin’s heart jumped into his throat when Kisumi’s eyes closed and he fell on top of him again.  More of his warm blood seeped into Rin’s clothes and dripped against his skin and he panicked.  Pushing Kisumi off of him, he laid his friend on the ground, shaking him slightly.  “Oi… Kisumi, say something!  You can’t fucking die on me!”

Gripping Kisumi’s shoulders, Rin shook him again, trying desperately to wake up his friend.  His blood slick hands lost their hold and Kisumi fell back down to the forest floor, unnervingly still.  Rin sat there, watching as the blood pumping out of his friend’s body slowed to a stop.  They were both so drenched in blood that it would have been a miracle for Kisumi to survive.

Logically, Rin knew this but it didn’t stop him from checking and rechecking for a pulse, a heartbeat, a breath, _anything_ that would indicate that his friend had survived but Kisumi laid still and unmoving.

Unsure of what to do, Rin simply sat there, staring at Kisumi’s body.  There was no way this could be real.  He was still inside the tent, having a bad dream.  Kisumi’s story was nothing more than a story and the screaming he kept hearing was just something conjured up in the dream.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later, when Rin’s throat felt raw and burning did he realize the screams were coming from him.  He moved a hand to his throat, rubbing it gently in an attempt to ease some of the pain.  He had no idea how long he had been sitting there, screaming into the night air.  Ever since they had gone inside that house, time had been moving strangely.  It had gotten worse after Sousuke’s death, as did the appearance of the world around him.  Rin wasn’t sure if Kisumi had noticed it but he had.  The world had gotten slightly fuzzier and somehow off, as though everything had been moved over by two inches, so it seemed normal but was so obviously _wrong._

He had to get out of the forest.  Maybe if he made it into town, things would be okay.  Maybe this really was some nightmare or hallucination.  It would explain why everything looked so off and why he hadn’t noticed himself screaming.

Getting up shakily, Rin looked around, trying to figure out which direction to go.  Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he turned on the flashlight and shown it around at the trees.  The light hit Kisumi, making the blood covering him glisten and Rin quickly averted the light back at the trees.  “I’m so sorry,” he whispered, “I promise I’ll come back for you.”

As he took a step away from his friend, the shrieking from inside the cabin pierced through the air.  Instead of being confined inside the cabin, the sound seemed to be coming from outside.  Against his better judgement, Rin turned around, shining the phone light at the door.

A man stood in the doorframe, head bowed with stringy hair hanging over his eyes.  Every few seconds he would twitch, scratching at himself, as he made a low, groaning sound in the back of his throat.  His clothes were torn and messy, covered in dark stains, making it hard to determine what era they were from.

Not that it mattered.  Rin wasn’t going to stick around and see what this guy wanted.  He had come from inside the house and everything inside there was poison.

Taking a step back, he was ready to just head down into the town when the shrieks returned, rooting him to the spot in fear.  Rin glanced back at the cabin door, coming face to face with the man’s wide eyed stare.  The unblinking gaze made Rin want to just give up, to just let the man and the house kill him like it had killed his friends.  He almost found himself taking a step forward when the man opened his mouth to let out a guttural shout, snapping Rin out of his immobilized state.

Without hesitating, Rin turned around and ran, trying to put as much distance between himself and that _thing._   Because it wasn’t human, it _couldn’t_ be human.  At least not anymore.

While Rin might not have been as fast as Rei when it came to running, he wasn’t slow by any means, yet the shrieks continued to follow right behind him.  He didn’t dare turn around, not wanting to look into those eyes again.

He pushed himself forward, rushing past trees and barely registering the sting of branches as they scratched his skin.  Everything still felt dreamlike to him, fuzzy and unfocused.  The forest blurred past him as he continued to push himself forward, pulling away from the hands he could feel grasping at his clothes.

A thought crossed his mind as he ran; what was he supposed to do now that his friends were dead?  How could he go onto Australia, go pro and live out his dream of swimming in the Olympics when Sousuke was dead?  What was he supposed to say to Kisumi’s little brother?  How was he supposed to face anyone after leaving his friends to die?  Maybe things would be better if he just gave up.

Rin’s eyes burned with tears and he shook his head.  No, he couldn’t think like that.  He would get out of here so he could live his life for all three of them.  Besides, he knew that if they were here, both Kisumi and Sousuke would be pushing him to survive.  He had to do this for them.

Forcing himself to run faster, Rin thought he heard the shrieking fall back a bit.  It was no longer piercing and right in his ear.  Maybe he would be safe.  Maybe he could really get out of this nightmare.

Bursting out of the trees, Rin found himself near the river that ran through Iwatobi.  If he just followed it, he could find help.  The noises from that _thing_ had stopped as well, filling Rin with a sense of hope.  He just had to follow the river and he would be fine.

Hurrying over to the bank of the river, he glanced about, trying to catch his bearings.  Seeing what looked like lights from the town in one direction, he turned to head that way.  He was finally safe.

Not a moment later, Rin felt hands shoving him, sending him crashing down the bank of the river.  Disoriented, he landed in the shallow water at the river’s edge, hissing in pain as the water stung the new scrapes he’d accumulated during his fall.  He was about to sit up when the hands returned, shoving him down back his back and holding his head under the water.

Instinct kicked in as he shut his mouth tightly, one hand plugging his nose to prevent water from entering as the other slapped at the arms holding him down.  Through the foamy, dark water, Rin could see a pair of eyes staring down at him.  They were the same eyes from the man in the cabin, the ones who had immobilized him with fear.  He thrashed harder, refusing to accept that was going to drown in shallow water like this.  He was a swimmer, dammit, he belonged in the water!  It wasn’t going to take him too.  He wasn’t going to be like his father!

No matter how much he struggled, the arms refused to move.  They held him down, pressing against his collarbones, pressing and pressing until something _broke_.  Rin screamed as pain shot through his body, mouth opening and drawing water into his lungs.

His panic skyrocketed as he clawed and kicked at the monster holding him down.  No matter what he tried, the figure didn’t budge; it simply looked at him with those eyes, wide and filled with malice.

As he breathed in more water, Rin felt his strength leaving him.  His vision was tunneling until all he could see were those eyes.  They were almost hypnotizing with the fear they made him feel, amplifying his pain as he stared into them.  Those eyes not only made him fear death but what lay beyond it.

Right before Rin’s vision blacked out entirely, he saw a wide, mangled smile join the eyes. 

He screamed one last time.

* * *

Haru wasn’t sure what woke up him, but he felt cold and sweaty all at once.  A glance at his bedside clock read 5:09 am.  He may have been an early riser, but even this was too early for him, especially on a day where he had nothing to do.  Carefully, as to not wake him, he moved Makoto’s arm off his waist and climbed out of bed.  As silently as he could, he got dressed, knowing that this strange feeling would bother him until he found out what had happened.

Pressing a gentle kiss to Makoto’s forehead, he grabbed his cellphone, just in case Makoto woke up to find him gone.  He glanced back at his boyfriend one last time before leaving his room and his house.

The morning air was chilly and Haru shivered a bit, glad that he had decided to wear a sweater.  He walked down the stone steps outside his home before breaking into a run as soon as he reached the bottom.  Something was urging him to head toward the forest and he did, letting his feet carry him down familiar streets.

Haru had never been able to explain the strange feelings he would sometimes get.  It was almost like intuition, he supposed.  When he had been little, he had asked his grandmother about it.  She had simply told him that he was more in tune with the world around him.  Even as a child, he had known not to talk about it, that people would find it frightening.  The one time he had mentioned it was when he had been playing with Makoto and felt his grandmother’s passing.  Makoto had gotten scared and cried and since then, Haru had never mentioned the feeling again.

The feeling was always stronger when something bad happened to those close to him.  Now, it was the strongest it had ever been since his grandmother’s death.  He felt like he was being choked, his air wheezing out of his lungs as he fought back nausea.  It only grew the closer he got to the forest.

Something had happened to Rin.

Rin had been camping in the forest, after all.  There was no one else in there that Haru was close to.  Panic over his best friend’s wellbeing spiked through his chest and he pushed himself to keep moving forward.

The sound of police sirens caught his attention as he came upon the bridge spanning the river.  It was the same bridge he had almost drowned by as a child.

As if compelled by the flashing lights, Haru hurried across the bridge.  As he tried to approach the huddle of police cars and an ambulance, he was stopped by police officers.  Moving away from the scene, he glanced down at the riverbank, feeling his heart jump into his throat.

A body was being pulled out of the river, dark red hair plastered to a pale face.

Haru felt sick and he finally did double over, throwing up onto the ground.  An officer approached him and as Haru tried to explain that the person they had found was his friend, a loud shriek pierced the air.

His hands flew up to his ears, pressing against them to muffle the sound.  The officer was clearly shocked by this and Haru knew he had to pretend everything was alright, that he didn’t feel and see and hear things that others didn’t but the noise was loud and so anguished he wanted to sob.

Pulling away from the officer, mumbling something about how he couldn’t accept Rin’s death, he glanced past the man, into forest that lay past the river, dark and looming.

From within the trees, a pale face looked out at him.  Wet, stringy red hair clung to ashen skin as wild, red eyes wept freely.

The anguished cry came again, clearly coming from his dead friend's mouth.  As Haru finally understood what had happened, he collapsed, muttering a name as he passed out.

“Rin…”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope it was obvious what happened at the end without outright saying it. I'm so sorry for this fic.


End file.
